English Vowel Sounds
English Vowel Sounds
English Vowel Sounds
Note 2: Diphthongs
A diphthong is one indivisible vowel sound that consists of two parts. The first part is the main strong
component (the nucleus); the second part is short and weak (the glide). A diphthong is always stressed
on its first component: [au], [ou]. A diphthong forms one syllable. American linguists usually list five
diphthongs: [ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou].
SOUND [i:]
Spelling examples: me, equal, Japanese, remake, see, sea, piece, seize, police.
The sound [i:] is represented in writing by the following letters and letter combinations.
Letter E
Under stress, in the root:
me, be, he, she, we, eve, these, scheme, theme, scene, obscene, Pete, delete, compete, complete,
obsolete, Crete, concrete, discrete, extreme, supreme, Steve, intervene, precede, recede;
equal, even, evening, evil, decent, recent, region, meter, Peter, secret, media, demon, detail, female,
legal, genius, senior, convenient, frequent, veto, premium, previous.
Combination EE
Under stress, in the root:
see, flee, free, agree, degree, knee, feel, peel, seed, feed, proceed, succeed, exceed, seen, keen, teen,
seek, peek, seem, screen, deep, creep, sleep, fleet, meet, greet, sleeve.
Combination EA
Under stress, in the root:
sea, flea, tea, peace, beach, teach, lead, read, beak, peak, leak, freak, deal, meal, reveal, seal, steal,
beam, cream, scream, team, bean, lean, clean, heap, leap, reap, please, release, increase, tease, meat,
beat, heat, beneath, breathe, creature, leave.
Combination IE
Under stress, in the root:
piece, niece, field, shield, yield, achieve, believe, grieve, relieve, retrieve, belief, grief, relief, brief, chief,
thief, fiend, siege, shriek, priest.
Combination EI
Under stress, in the root:
seize, receive, receipt, deceive, conceive, conceit, perceive, ceiling, leisure, Leigh.
Letter I
In words of foreign origin:
police, gasoline, machine, magazine, marine, routine, vaccine, sardine, prestige, regime, reprise, elite,
naive, pizza, ski, liter, fatigue, intrigue, antique, physique, unique, technique.
Also the sound [i:]: key, people, Aesop, Oedipus.
SOUND [i]
Spelling examples: it, kiss, justice, enough, English, remove, rocket, symbol, antonym, lady, Annie,
honey.
The sound [i] is represented in writing by the following letters and letter combinations.
Letter I
Under stress or unstressed, in the root, prefix, suffix or ending:
it, bit, fit, sit, miss, kiss, tip, lip, rip, pick, kick, sick, pin, sin, dinner, bring, sing, king, list, wrist, fill, kill, hill,
trim, river, habit, unit, consist, ignore, inform, infinity, justice, classic, public, terrible, English, swimming.
Letter E
Under stress or unstressed, in the root, prefix, suffix or ending:
enough, effect, eleven, electric, emotion, English, despair, pretty, depart, remove, repair, repeat, reply,
preliminary, prepare, security, illness, madness, actress, timeless, bullet, rocket, fixes, bridges, added,
counted.
Letter Y
Under stress or unstressed, in the root:
symbol, Lybia, lyrics, myriad, hymn, nymph, pygmy, pyramid, Sydney, sympathy, synthesis, synchronize,
crystal, system, typical, tyranny, mystery, myth, rhythm, antonym, synonym, pseudonym, acronym.
Combination IE
Unstressed, in the suffix:
Annie, Carrie, Katie, Abbie, Elsie, auntie, girlie, dearie, sweetie.
Combination EY
Unstressed, in the suffix:
honey, chimney, hockey, journey, money, monkey, pulley, trolley, valley, Sydney, Odyssey, Casey,
Abbey.
Combination EA
Under stress, in the root:
[i:]: sea, tea, flea, peace, beach, teach, lead, read, beak, peak, leak, freak, deal, meal, reveal, seal, steal,
beam, cream, scream, team, bean, lean, clean, heap, leap, reap, please, release, increase, tease, meat,
beat, heat, beneath, breathe, creature, leave.
Under stress, in the root:
[e]: bread, dead, head, header, lead, read, spread, thread, dread, tread, ready, instead, sweat, sweater,
threat, threaten, breath, death, deaf, health, stealth, wealth, weather, leather, feather, treacherous,
treasure, measure, pleasure, pleasant, jealous, dealt, meant, cleanse, weapon, heaven, heavy, breakfast,
breast.
[ei]: break, great, steak.
Combination OW
Usually under stress, in the root:
[au]: now, how, cow, row, bow, brow, allow, crowd, powder, owl, fowl, howl, down, gown, town, clown,
brown, drown, crown, browse, browser, towel, bowel, vowel, flower, power, tower, coward, Howard.
Under stress, in the root:
[ou]: know, low, show, row, bow, mow, owe, tow, crow, grow, throw, blow, flow, slow, bowl, own,
blown, flown, grown, shown, thrown, growth.
Unstressed, in the root:
[ou]: follow, hollow, borrow, narrow, window, yellow.
Combination OU
Usually under stress, in the root:
[au]: out, about, doubt, couch, cloud, loud, proud, foul, noun, ounce, bounce, announce, found, pound,
ground, hound, round, sound, surround, count, amount, mountain, house, mouse, louse, blouse, mouth,
south, scout, shout, our, hour, flour, sour, bough, plough, drought.
Usually under stress, in the root:
[u:]: group, soup, route, boulevard, cougar, coupon, loupe, mousse, routine, souvenir, through, wound,
you, youth.
[u]: could, should, would.
Under stress or unstressed, in the root or suffix:
neutral sound [ə]: enough, rough, tough, country, cousin, couple, double, trouble, touch, flourish,
nourish, young, borough, thorough, Plymouth, famous, venomous, glamorous.
Under stress, in the root:
[o:]: cough, bought, brought, fought, ought, sought, thought, course, court, four, pour, source, your.
[ou]: boulder, mould / mold, shoulder, soul, dough, though.
Taken from : http://usefulenglish.ru/phonetics/listening-for-vowels